Participatory Art
Encyclopedia
Participatory art is an approach to making art in which the audience is engaged directly in the creative process, allowing them to become co-authors, editors, and observers of the work. Its intent is to challenge the dominant form of making art in the West, in which a small class of professional artists make the art while the public takes on the role of passive observer or consumer, i.e., buying the work of the professionals in the marketplace. Commended works by advocates that popularized participatory art include Augusto Boal
in his Theater of the oppressed, as well as Allan Kaprow
in happenings.
Artwork that is interactive and participatory may be referred to as "participatory art;" it may also be categorized under terms including relational art
, social practice
, community art
, and new genre public art
.
Folk and tribal art are also considered to be "participatory art" in that many or all of the members of the society participate in the making of art. As the ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl wrote, the tribal group "has no specialization or professionalization; its division of labor depends almost exclusively on sex and occasionally on age, and only rarely are certain individuals proficient in any technique to a distinctive degree ... the same
songs are known by all the members of the group, and there is little specialization in composition, performance or instrument making.”
In the Fall/Winter issue of Oregon Humanities magazine, writer Eric Gold describes "an artistic tradition called 'social practice
,' which refers to works of art in which the artist, audience, and their interactions with one another are the medium. While a painter uses pigment and canvas, and a sculptor wood or metal, the social practice artist often creates a scenario in which the audience is invited to participate. Although the results may be documented with photography, video, or otherwise, the artwork is really the interactions that emerge from the audience's engagement with the artist and the situation."
Augusto Boal
Augusto Boal was a Brazilian theatre director, writer and politician. He was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originally used in radical popular education movements...
in his Theater of the oppressed, as well as Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow
Allan Kaprow was an American painter, assemblagist and a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art. He helped to develop the "Environment" and "Happening" in the late 1950s and 1960s, as well as their theory. His Happenings - some 200 of them - evolved over the years...
in happenings.
Artwork that is interactive and participatory may be referred to as "participatory art;" it may also be categorized under terms including relational art
Relational Art
Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud...
, social practice
Social Practice
The Social Practice Model sees literacy as a key dimension of community regeneration and a part of the wider lifelong learning agenda. Such an approach recognises that:*literacy and numeracy are complex capabilities rather than a simple set of basic skills...
, community art
Community art
Community Art could be loosely defined as a way of creating art in which professional artists collaborate more or less intensively with people who don't normally actively engage in the arts. Community arts, also sometimes known as "dialogical art", "community-engaged" or "community-based art,"...
, and new genre public art
Suzanne Lacy
Suzanne Lacy is an internationally known artist, educator, writer, and former public servant. She describes her work, which includes "installations, video, and large-scale performances", as focusing on "social themes and urban issues." She also served in the education cabinet of Jerry Brown, then...
.
Folk and tribal art are also considered to be "participatory art" in that many or all of the members of the society participate in the making of art. As the ethnomusicologist Bruno Nettl wrote, the tribal group "has no specialization or professionalization; its division of labor depends almost exclusively on sex and occasionally on age, and only rarely are certain individuals proficient in any technique to a distinctive degree ... the same
songs are known by all the members of the group, and there is little specialization in composition, performance or instrument making.”
In the Fall/Winter issue of Oregon Humanities magazine, writer Eric Gold describes "an artistic tradition called 'social practice
Social Practice
The Social Practice Model sees literacy as a key dimension of community regeneration and a part of the wider lifelong learning agenda. Such an approach recognises that:*literacy and numeracy are complex capabilities rather than a simple set of basic skills...
,' which refers to works of art in which the artist, audience, and their interactions with one another are the medium. While a painter uses pigment and canvas, and a sculptor wood or metal, the social practice artist often creates a scenario in which the audience is invited to participate. Although the results may be documented with photography, video, or otherwise, the artwork is really the interactions that emerge from the audience's engagement with the artist and the situation."
External links
- What Is a Participatory Practice? by David Goldenberg and Patricia Reed (interview)
- Participatory Arts: The Stranger Brings a Gift by Pia Moriarty (essay)
- Participatory Art: A Paradigm Shift from Objects to Subjects by Suzana Milevska (essay)
- Bryant College Community/Performance Conference (2004)
- http://www.oregonhum.org/oregon-humanities-fall-2008.phpOregon Humanities magazine, Fall/Winter 2008. (Discusses participatory art by Portland, Oregon artists including Harrell FletcherHarrell FletcherHarrell Fletcher is an American artist in Portland, Oregon who creates socially engaged interdisciplinary projects.-Early work:While completing his degree at California College of Arts and Crafts, Fletcher began collaborating with artist Jon Rubin...
, Julie Keefe, Sam Gould, Tiffany Lee BrownTiffany Lee BrownTiffany Lee Brown is an American writer, editor, and interdisciplinary artist. Author of A Compendium of Miniatures , she is the Executive Director of the 501c3 non-profit organization New Oregon Arts & Letters...
, M. K. Guth, Gary Wiseman, and M.O.S.T.)] - Art Alienated: An Essay on the Decline of Participatory Art
- Examples: : Flickr tags "participatory_art" - (may need Flickr account) community_art